Karl Philipp Emanuel Bach – Sonata in A minor for flute alone

Karl Philipp Emanuel Bach – Sonata in A minor, Poco adagio
There are never enough hours in the day for me to do everything I want to do. This summer I am torn between composition, painting, and the flute. I have been devoting more time to flute lately, bringing my chops up to [...]

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The Power of Color

“Color is the power which directly influences the soul. Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with the strings. The artist is the hand which plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul.” – Vasily Kandinsky
Artwork ©2009 Dosia McKay

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Glass – Electronic Soundtrack – New Music for Dance

Excerpt 1
Excerpt 2
This past winter I was invited by a fellow composer and my former teacher James R. Carlson to participate in the annual Art Moves, a collaboration of original art, music, and dance inspired by artwork at the Knoxville Museum of Art.
I was commissioned to compose music celebrating A Visionary [...]

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Three Laments of Heloise – New Music for Chamber Orchestra

Queens Envied Me My Joys
If Not With You, My Heart is Nowhere
My Most Wretched Soul
I am very excited to introduce my new composition for chamber orchestra entitled Three Laments of Heloise. The Laments were inspired by the Letters of Abelard and Heloise I read this spring. I was deeply [...]

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Two Moods – New Music for Clarinet and Piano

1. Haunted
2. Wind Chimes
(Samples from a live performance by Jeffrey St. John Sherwood, clarinet and Melony Maness, piano, March 29, 2009.)

I am happy to unveil Two Moods – my latest composition for clarinet and piano, written for clarinetist Jeffrey St John Sherwood.
Jeffrey and I discussed collaboration on a piece as [...]

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New Music – Free Scores and Sheet Music in PDF Format

I have decided to conduct an experiment related to the distribution of my music. For a limited time, in addition to the professionally bound scores which you can purchase on my website, I am making available free PDFs of my music.
If you would like to obtain any of my scores, I ask that [...]

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Jubilance and Lament – New Compositions

I am enclosing links to my latest compositions: The Jubilance and the Lament. Both works were composed to satisfy the final requirement of a counterpoint course in my undergraduate studies and both draw inspiration from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Das Wohltemperierte Klavier.
In their initial version, the Jubilance and the Lament were written for [...]

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Making Music Making Love

Several years ago I was in need of some mindless decompression and so I went to the movie theater to see a popular at that time chick flick The Devil Wears Prada. Perhaps the Prada story itself could serve as a topic for another post, but for now I would like to focus [...]

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Orchestration / Scoring Demos

A good composer has to be able to wear many hats; that of an orchestrator, arranger, conductor, instrumentalist, and, of course a creator / inventor.
I finally had some time to pull my orchestration projects I prepared last year. It’s so much fun to play with the orchestral colors. I am enclosing a couple of [...]

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Epiphanies – Artwork and Music Combined

I thought I would experiment with combining my abstract painting with music. The video features 10 of my paintings and the soundtrack is one of my electronic compositions entitled Thousands of Tears.

©2008 Dosia McKay

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Prelude and Fugue – New compositions for piano solo

Lest you think I only write poetry these days, I am encolsing links to my latest music compositions.
Inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach’s Das Wohltemperierte Klavier in style and form, and influenced by the colorful progressions of the Impressionists, I wrote a Prelude and a Fuge in 3 voices. This time I ventured [...]

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The Calling

You used to know everything
In even rows and columns
Effort times distance equals destination
Page eighty nine
The second paragraph on the right
In black and white
Exhibit A illustrates
A median average
Expected outcome
Law and order
Fill the prescription
And choose to be
Somewhat satisfied
Mostly satisfied
Totally satisfied
Now you don’t know anything
So you tread softly
And feel your way around
An unfamiliar territory
How does a hand of [...]

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Beautiful is the Mention of Your Name

Beautiful is the mention of your name
Lovely is the shape of its sounds
But were it not for the language
My lips would call upon it still
With velvety timbres of golden sunrises
And soft whispers of hisses and shimmers
With every breath the muse soars
On swirling currents of warm air
The fingers tremble and thirst
For a touch of the sacred [...]

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Nothing to Say

Another useless phrase
Another pointless gesture
Another empty prayer
Of a heart that’s running away
And the melody of my first song
Is but a shadow of days gone by
When the faith was childlike and pure
And the love was simple and brave
Somewhere between the lines
There’s still a song waiting to be written
If I could only clear the noise
That chains me [...]

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Das Wohltemperierte Klavier

I will not be still
In the presence of eternity
Breathing into a fleeting moment
Blessed be the pleasures of the mind
The symmetry of the Universe
And the anticipation of a kiss
Of the immaculate conception
Oh, what is a frail human
To command the world
To resonate in concentric circles
To govern the ebb and flow of the soul
Everblooming overflowing
Effervescent lifesprings
Of invisible colors [...]

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Dirty Old Men

Dirty old men lick their fingers
When they eat gristly chicken
They spit out the bones
Of buy one get one free virgins
The meat is enhanced
With a saline solution
Coated in bleached and enriched flour
The cleavages are on sale on Fridays
The midriffs are free just for the asking
The thighs glisten and flex
Ignorant of the mysteries of a skirt
Would you [...]

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Cry Not

Cry not for the poet
For the poet is immune to tears
He trickles down syllables
With his watered down ink
He sketches fountains and scribbles lakes
Words rush like waterfalls
Pages float
Soaked to the bone
Oceans apart
Ran out of salt
But water gushes
It’s only a mild case of emotional precipitation
©2008 Dosia McKay

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Colargol – Music Influences, Polar Bears, and First Loves

It would be very sophisticated and high-brow to list Scriabin or Schoenberg as my musical influences. Brahms might be classy, and Bach perhaps too predictable. But in all truth and honesty I must admit (and I only realized it this week) that it is, in fact, Colargol.
My mother sent me [...]

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Color Me Blue – new music for soprano saxophone, 2 vibraphones, and double bass

What happens when counterpoint meets jazz? Lot’s of interesting things. Colorful progressions, virtuoso solo passages, and a little bit of a “mood” are all found in my new composition Color Me Blue for soprano saxophone, 2 vibraphones, and double bass. This is not quite a standard set of instruments, but an interesting combination nevertheless.
Since, [...]

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Kronos Quartet, Early Music: Lachryme antique – Review

The Kronos Quartet, one of the premiere American chamber ensembles, has pushed the boundaries of genre, style, and interpretation for over 30 years. From its conception, ever since violinist David Harrington heard John Crumb’s “Black Angels”, a work inspired by the Vietnam War, featuring bowed water glasses, spoken word passages, and electronic passages, the [...]

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